Dua Kosong Kosong Sembilan

Hi readers!! I'm back from my vacation.
Took me a month to start blogging again. haha!!
Its..its because I've been pretty busy you see!!

1-18 Dec: Australia & New Zealand
18-26: Christmas
27-2: New Year

See, so busy kan? But no matter how much I shall neglect my blog, I have to blog today.
Everyone knows this, its the last day of 2009!!!

[2009.12.31]

Dear 2009, *Why do everyone start by saying this??*
You've been nice to me. Really nice to me.
I thank you for a wonderful year with smiles and tears.
Actually, I don't recall having tearful events this year, unlike the past years.
I will really miss you..

Love,
Leslie

Oh year 2010,
I hope that you'll treat me well.
I'm not asking for all the love in the world.
All I want is to have a wonderful year like I had in 2009.

Love,
Leslie

No matter how good or how bad the year is for you,
we should end the year in a good manner.
For me, a good ending of the year means being together with my family.
I spend the last day with my family every year except the year when I was in Japan.
This year may be the first time I don't spend it with my family when I'm in Malaysia.
I'm going to a BBQ party in Mei Mun's House.

Okay, talking about good ending.
I already have that yesterday.
It was our New Year's Eve Dinner!!
Part of 2nd Aunt's family came to have a pleasant dinner with us.
Here are the photos of what's in the menu.
*Prepares napkins for your dripping saliva*


Table Setting


Soya Milk for a drink???


First Dish - Dad's Famous Assam Laksa
He is the reason we hardly eat Assam Laksa outside.


He makes this once a year, sometimes twice.


Second Dish - Emperor's Soup


Third Dish - Eggless Bibimbap
Normally there will be egg inside, but because I don't eat egg, everyone can't.
Hehehe!!


Mixed Eggless Bibimbap


Fouth Dish - Black Glutinous Rice with Coconut Milk


Dessert - Japanese Fusion Dessert with Assortments
Note that Yinli baked the cheese cake for us. Everyone like it.


Japanese Fusion Dessert
Dad learned this when he was having dinner with the Japan Ambassador.
Its a mixture of some little things and a dash of plum juice.
The cherries are fresh from New Zealand and they're yummy!! Expensive too.
There are little rice balls in there. We had this dessert for Dong Zhi as well.

Finally..

My Niece - Chloe
No, she's not edible.

Nothing beats spending precious moments with my family.
They're the bestest people in the world!!!
With my parents around, I get to eat good food.
They're doing fine dining lunch on saturday.
Being so secretive about it, I'm guessing they're the cooks.

*OOPS!! I TOTALLY FORGOT MOMMY READS MY BLOG!!!*
Ahh..who cares laa.
Mommy, Daddy,
I love you!!!

Happy New Year to everyone else!!
May 2010 treat you well!!!

Blast to the past, 1995 to be exact.

People from Class 3Y of 1994

Its been more than a decade since I saw a few of them.
I lost contact with them right after primary school.
Back when I was still in primary school, autographs were really popular *especially in standard 6*
We wrote our names, address, phone number, date of birth etc and decorate the page as nicely as we could.
There are even messages written to the owner of the book.
Not to forget folding the corners of the page with secret messages inside!!!
Oh man, those were the days.

Though with our fancy autograph book, we do not keep in touch with each other.
Oh well, your mom will be spanking you if you were to call up your friends randomly and chat nothing important.
To us, it wasn't such a big deal not keeping in touch back then.
We still have our secondary school friends.

Never knew what kind of feeling they will give me.
Never realised that we've lost touch already.
Never went back to year 1995 until someone tagged me in a photo.


Year 1995 - Credit goes to Amelie

It was this photo that started massive comments posted by many of us.
It started from "Whoa!! Old school!!!" till "We should meet up"
and there we have it, after almost a month later, we finally met up.
Though many of us weren't able to attend, but we still continue the reunion.

Initially, we planned to have a dinner in Ampang but due to some reasons we settled for kota damansara.
Although just a simple steamboat dinner, we enjoyed ourselves.
Talked about how are we now and topics led to other topics.
I really enjoyed my time there, it really feels like old friends meeting each other again!!

After returning home, the feel of sentimentality struck me.
I can't help but feel blessed that we still get to meet up and keep in touch after so long.
Though everyone has walked a different path, but we still spend a little night gathering.
I truly love that.
This made me think, how will we be a year later? Will our next meetup be 10 years in the future?
Then back into the near pass, I focused my thoughts to my college friends.
How will we be next year? Will we still have dinner together often?

I miss them. I really miss them.
I miss those whom I just met just now. I miss those whom I hangout with in college.
I'm missing other people when my girlfriend is missing me.
Oh gosh, what kind of boyfriend am I??
Hehehe..But no matter what, I miss those who have stepped into my life.
And..I miss my girlfriend too!!!

Will be on the plane to Australia on tuesday.
Will be spending family time for two and a half weeks.
Hope to see them again when I'm back.
I better sleep.

You're sad because you loved..

You hold your tears with love

You never feel sad for something you don't feel attached to.
and the more you're attached to something/someone, the easier it is to make you sad.
This is a common emotion for humans.

I did say in my previous post that sadness doesn't exist.
Sadness is the absence of happiness. It is.
It is amazing how sad people can get because of someone they love.
A simple remark(which doesn't mean anything to other people) can ruin a person's day.
Though we humans are getting physically stronger day by day,
we are emotionally weaker.

We humans need to feel love.
We hate being lonely.
We hate being rejected.
Our need for affection makes us weak.
But that's who we are. That makes us human.

How many of us believes that Love makes the world go round?
How many of us actually advocates that?
Is it possible for us to achieve what we have today without love?
Yes? No?
You think about it.
Who will Mother Teresa and Ghandi be if love doesn't exist?
Will there be John 3:16 if love doesn't exist?

Couples may argue over small matters.
There will be times when both are willing to give, yet none of them wants to accept.
Isn't it easier for one party to accept when the other gives?
Wouldn't that settle all problems?
Well, we wouldn't know, don't we?
But I believe that at the end of the day, all we want is to love each other and be loved.
In the end, we'll be like little kids who do not want to let go of their parents.


Holding on to LOVE..

NOTE: Don't bother asking why my posts sound abit emo lately. I'm not emo. Lets just say, I've been doing a lot of thinking and I like it. hehe!! The year's almost ending, I'm just reflecting on how my year has been, thats all!!

Tomorrow - How much do you love it?

Aileen Quinn - Tomorrow

The sun will come out
tomorrow
bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
there will be sun!

Just thinking about
tomorrow
clears aways the cobwebs and the sorrow
'till there's none!

When I'm stuck with a day
that's grey
and lonely
I just stick out my chin
and grin and say..Ohhh..

The sun'll come out
tomorrow
so you gotta hang on 'till
tomorrow...
Come what may..

Tomorrow!
Tomorrow! I love you
tomorrow!
You're only a day away!!!

---

I love this song.
I don't know why, but I love it.
*Thats why you like things for no reason right??*
No matter how old this song is,
no matter if Aileen Quinn(starred in Annie in 1982) changed from this..

Young Annie(Aileen Quinn)

to this..

Current Annie(Aileen Quinn)

This song is still nice.
I don't think this version is be Aileen Quinn but its the nicest version I can find.
Such pure, and innocent voice..
Its optimism..
It can really bring a better day to people *thats what I believe*

Most of the time when I'm emo, this song won't help *laughs*
Though it tells me to be optimistic, but I'm too stubborn to follow.
and sometimes I emo..because I wanna emo..
Emoing makes me think alot, and I like that *weird I am*
But after emoing, you'll feel more happiness around you kan?

There is no such thing as sadness because it does not exist in the world.
Sadness is the absence of happiness.
Just like evil is the absence of good.
You're only sad because you are not happy.
That is why most people cannot control sadness but their happiness.


The sun will always rise..tomorrow..

Google: Celebrating Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary

What do Google and Sesame Street have in common?
Nothing!!!

But as you people know, Google is nice enough to create doodles for certain occations to remind us about special dates.
So Google decided to do it for Sesame Street's 40th anniversary too!!!

Got up one day and open my web browser as usual, then..

Cookie Monster from Google - Sesame Street

Oh gosh!!! Damn adorable lor!!!
Hehe Google knows that I love Cookie Monster so it decided to put up Cookie Monster 1st.

Here are some of the doodles posted by Google.

Bert and Ernie from Google - Sesame Street

Count von Count from Google - Sesame Street

From Google - Sesame Street

Ensemble of the characters from Google - Sesame Street

Big Bird's legs rom Google - Sesame Street

Oscar the Grouch from Google - Sesame Street

Yes, I'm loving you more Google!!

Firenze Duomo - The Florence "House"

Apologies to all my readers,
Was away for the week to visit my girlfriend and friends. hehe
Blogged halfway but due to the "slower" internet connection there I got lazy to finish the post.
Anyways here is it!!

*Blog post START*

Though Florence is the one place I wanna go in my graduation trip,
I get to spend only a day there.
Its not enough, definitely not enough and its worth a second trip there!!!

After the warm family dinner with Emilio and his family, I like this town a whole lot more!!
We had a pretty tight schedule the next day.
The itinerary for that day was to visit the Firenze Duomo early in the morning and board the train to Venezia (Venice) by 11:30am.
Things were well planned until I did something really stupid.

We were supposed to wake up at 8am and finish our breakfast by 8:30am so that we'll have time to explore the town a little bit.
Something that I've neglected was the change in timezone.
Italy is 1HOUR AHEAD of England, just like Malaysia is 7hours ahead due to Day Light Saving.
I didn't syncronise my time with the local time hence my clocks showed me an hour earlier.
Thinking that its still early, I stayed in bed until 8am (my time) which was 9am local time.
When I got out of bed, I saw everyone finishing their breakfast already.
and it struck me!!! I got the time all wrong!!!
Now, because of my negligence we had an hour less to spend.
*boo me*

I quickly got ready *I can get ready pretty fast* and we checked out the hotel.
Although we've checked out but we're still able to leave our luggage at the common room.
This means we'll have to come back slightly earlier to collect our luggage and head for the train station not far from here.
While checking out, I took a photo of the Duomo.


Firenze Duomo


Outside the hotel window, the humble town of Florence
Photos in this album looks pretty dark and washed out.
Its done on purpose.


The ever famous Florence market.
Its filled with the smell of leather.


The street of Florence.
I love this photo.


Man taking photo



Certain details of the building.


Group photos

One really amazing sight is the door opposite the Duomo.
The door is carved, and mainly out of gold!!!
Here are some photos.


Parts of the door


Just look at the number of people trying to go as near as possible to the door.
Lucky I have my 18-250mm lens so I can stay out from the crowd.


Duomo - Interior


Angel Statue *Did I tell you I LOVE Angels??*
Now you know. hehe!!


Duomo Clock *Try Intepreting it*



Praying for our family..I think *At least I was*


Candle lights *Feels so peaceful looking at them*

I didn't take much photo inside cuz its was pretty dark in there.
Photos do not turn out nice due to lack of light so thats a sad thing.
Back outside..


This guy is selling painting (not painted by him I think) to survive!!


I forgot whats this but I know its the tallest in..Florence??? or Italy???
*Definitely the tallest*


Outside Firenze Duomo


OOPS!!!! Totally candid!!!
*LOL buat kacau jer*


Ming Hong - waiting to cross the road.


I love standing on Italian streets. I just do!!


Narcism

Now, its time for the Florence Market!!!
*Smells the leather*

Looking at the heaps of items they have there..


Its like Petaling Street in KL


Waiting for business, Aunty??


Seller on the left trying to satisfy his customers much!!


This seller looks happy when I took his photo *blush*


I spot masks at the back!!!


Narcism..again


These ladies were checking out fake branded goods!!

After a quick tour of the market, we head back to the hotel where we left our luggages at and went to Venice.


Walking up the stairs..

Before ending this post, I'll share with you the view from the hotel lobby.

Purposely put Ming Hong in *haha*

Thats all for now~!!!